If you’re a trauma survivor, it’s likely you’ve heard about nervous system regulation. You might wonder what this means, how to determine if you’re facing dysregulation, and how to return to a neutral state. I invite you to read the post to learn signs you have a dysregulated nervous system and what you can do to find holistic balance.
What Is The Nervous System?
Your nervous system is your brain and body’s ultimate communication system. You have your central nervous system, which includes your brain and spinal cord, then your peripheral nervous system, which includes voluntary and involuntary movement.
Your peripheral nervous system includes what you may most commonly hear when people talk about your nervous system, because it includes your fight-or-flight response. Your autonomic nervous system contains your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) and sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight).
Your nervous system plays a crucial role in every action you make, including automatic (like digestion), and purposeful (like raising your arm). Its mission is to keep you safe and aware of perceived threats, however, you may have a dysregulated nervous system if you’ve experienced high levels of stress or trauma.
What Causes A Dysregulated Nervous System
The purpose of your autonomic nervous system is to keep your body in balance, but trauma can affect the signals you receive. What may have been an actual threat and trauma to you in the past is now reemerging as triggers in the present. Your body sends signals that there is a threat, and now you experience nervous system dysregulation symptoms like sweating, racing heart rate, anxiety, stress, and other symptoms.
If you’re unable to restore your nervous system (communicate to your body that you’re in a safe and supportive environment), then it’s possible you’ll experience more symptoms that derive from five different autonomic responses. These include:
- Fight
- Flight
- Freeze
- Fawn
- Flop
Five Responses To Stress Or Trauma
I’d like to offer a friendly reminder that your responses to trauma are part of your autonomic nervous system. This means it happens without you making a conscious choice. Our society seems to glorify the fight-or-flight response and question the freeze response with unsupportive quotations like, Why didn’t you do anything?
It’s not your fault your body reacted the way it did in a highly stressful situation – your body did the best it could at the time to protect you.
Let’s explore the different responses below:
- Fight – Your body sends adrenaline and stress hormones to control the threat itself through force to protect yourself
- Flight – You prepare to leave the threat and tense muscles like your psoas and hips to prepare to run
- Freeze – You become immobile or feel stuck so the threat can pass you without you being noticed
- Fawn – You place other’s needs over your own to deescalate a situation without causing conflict that can lead to a bigger threat
- Flop – Known as dorsal vagal shutdown, you become completely immobile and your heart rate slows to save energy.
While beneficial in the short term, constant bracing from daily stressors or triggers leads to long term symptoms like muscle tension.
25 Signs You Have A Dysregulated Nervous System
I invite you to explore how these responses can manifest overtime in your body and influence your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
It may seem like your body only responds to stress or trauma when it’s happening in the moment, but when your body senses danger (you become activated or triggered), overtime this leads to repeated actions which leads to symptoms that seem to make no sense or have no explanation. A few examples of this are chronic pain, chronic stress, and other physical symptoms.
Here are the different stress responses and signs you’re dysregulated in each category:
Fight Response
5 Signs:
- Anger and irritability
- Aggression
- Controlling behavior
- Perfectionism
- Hypervigilance (always on edge)
How this may show up in your daily life:
You might confront others with more aggression than assertiveness. You could also become overwhelmed by perfecting a task or have a hard time letting go of control (either with yourself or others).
Flight Response
5 Signs:
- Anxiety and panic
- Restlessness
- Avoidance
- Overworking
- Can’t focus
How this may show up in daily life:
You might keep yourself busy all day to avoid facing difficult emotions, sending yourself into too many tasks and unable to focus on them fully. You may also actively avoid situations that remind you of a previous stress or trauma.
Freeze Response
5 Signs:
- Feeling stuck or numb
- Disconnection
- Dissociation
- Procrastination
- Isolation
How this may show up in daily life:
You might find it hard to make decisions, feeling paralyzed by what to do and procrastinate on important tasks. You could feel detached from your body, live in your head when things become stressful, and feel safest when you’re alone – leading to isolation.
Related Post: Yoga For Functional Freeze: 4 Quick Techniques To Get Your Energy Back
Fawn Response
5 Signs:
- People-pleasing
- Difficulty saying no
- Feel unsafe when you want to assert boundaries
- Over-apologizing
- Never feeling good enough
How this may show up in daily life:
You might feel you abandon yourself in order to keep others happy, or avoid conflict because you’re afraid to rock the boat. You might hold your tongue a lot because of fear of how others will react and compliment others effortlessly, while feeling like any compliment you receive is a lie.
Flop Response
5 Signs:
- Extreme exhaustion
- Muscle weakness
- Numbness
- Decreased heart rate
- Immobile
How this may show up in daily life:
You might be frozen but not tense, instead your muscles are “floppy.” You might even faint or collapse.
The flop response is usually not something that can live in your body like the other states – your body goes into complete shutdown and you may blackout or have no memory of an event. This is usually a response to an immediate threat or event.
Can You Experience Multiple Responses?
You may find you resonate with one or more of the responses on this list. It’s common to feel this way, and our bodies adapt to what feels like the best course of action.
You may also find that you experience muscular tension in your body from constantly holding or tensing your body.
Related Post: 6 Hidden Emotions That Cause Hip Tension
Related Post: These Are The Emotions That Cause Shoulder Tension & Pain (And How To Easily Find Relief!)
Each response has one sole purpose: safety.
When you’re dysregulated, your body may feel like something around you is unsafe – even if logically you know you are. The best way to ease regulate your nervous system holistically is to communicate through your body that it’s safe to rest and release.
I welcome you to not get too caught up in trying to always identify which state you’re in, but to recognize if you are becoming dysregulated. Once you feel this is true for you, you can take steps to find balance and inner peace.
How to Support Your Dysregulated Nervous System
There are many methods to soothe a dysregulated nervous system, even after trauma. I welcome you to explore as many therapy and support options as you like and I invite you to explore this blog post to explore 15 yoga tips to heal a dysregulated nervous system.
One research-backed method for regulating a dysregulated nervous system after trauma is through trauma-informed yoga. This somatic practice reconnects your mind and body (for freeze response), teaches you how to soothe irritability and work through anger (fight response), learn how to honor your personal boundaries (fawn response), and gently find stillness in a pace that works for you (flight response.)
Overview
Every effort you make to restore a regulated nervous system goes a long way to improving physical, emotional, and mental health. I invite you to take all the time you need on your healing journey, and know that there isn’t anything to fix because you have a dysregulated nervous system. You’re not broken, your body only wants to protect you.
Thank you for spending this time with me, and take care.
